http://www.universitymetrics.com/g-factorWhat is the G-Factor?The G-factor International University Ranking measures the importance of universities as a function of the number of links to their websites from the websites of other leading international universities. The G-Factor is based on the following premises:
1. Universities are in the business of creating and disseminating knowledge.
2. Universities are prolific sources of web content.
3. The truism that "an organization becomes its website" really is true for universities (or at least the totality of the web content of a university is more than a reflection of the total embedded knowledge of the university - it increasingly IS the the embedded knowledge of the university).
4. "If it's not on Google is doesn't exist!" Disturbing to the few remaining stuffy academic conservatives, but a reality to the majority for whom the Web has become a seamless part of their knowledge environment. Academics and instititutions that recognize and respond to this new environment ultimately will be among its beneficiaries.
5. Citation is the highest form of flattery in academia: measures of citation rates, while they remain controversial in the detail of how they are applied, are generally acknowledged in principle as one of the most objective measures of the importance of academic works.
The essential concept behind the G-Factor is therefore to search (using the Google Search Engine) on every leading university's website for links to the websites of other leading universities and count the total number of such links. This number is the G-Factor.
G-Factor Rank SJTU 2005 Rank Institution1 5 Massachusetts Inst Tech (MIT)
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24 36 Univ Texas - Austin
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39 203-300 Kansas State Univ
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46 89 Texas A&M Univ - Coll Station
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48 35 Univ Colorado - Boulder...
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98 153-202 Iowa State Univ...
121 153-202 Univ Nebraska - Lincoln...
124 203-300 Univ Missouri - Columbia...
133 203-300 Univ Western Ontario
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136 101-152 State Univ New York - Stony Brook
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142 153-202 Univ Cincinnati - Cincinnati
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166 203-300 Wayne State Univ
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177 203-300 Tulane Univ
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180 203-300 Univ Vermont
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190 203-300 Univ Saskatchewan
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193 203-300 Univ Kansas - Lawrence <-- (LOL)
